


The Seth and Ryan Show

by thinkpink20



Category: The OC
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-28
Updated: 2012-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-31 21:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkpink20/pseuds/thinkpink20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seth really blames Ryan for his current incapacitated situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seth and Ryan Show

Seth really blames Ryan for his current incapacitated situation. He has had a lot of time to think about this, and had decided he blames Ryan on three levels - 1.) Ryan left him alone for ten minutes while he went in the shower. Ryan should really know by now that leaving Seth alone equals trouble. 2.) Ryan shouldn't have had the stupid 50lb weights in his room in the first place. Just because he is tougher and has better punching arms than everyone else in Newport, doesn't mean he has to leave his fitness gear around for innocent weaklings to pick up. And 3.) Ryan acts like a mother hen whenever Seth gets ill, hence his mother being told, the doctor being called and an order of strict bed rest for two weeks being issued.

Seth realizes he has far too much time on his hands if he can think up so many and varied levels of placing blame, but again, for this he blames Ryan.

Over the years he's been pretty fond of his bedroom. He likes his posters and the hum of his computer when it's left idle too long, and the way his blinds let in long slants of sunlight which fall on the carpet and make patterns. His bedroom means lazy lie-ins and hot make-out sessions with Ryan, and on the odd occasion there has even been actual sex in the bedroom, which Seth likes very much, and generally when he thinks of his bedroom he has happy memories. Now though, that's all ruined.

His bedroom is peace and tranquility, yes, but three whole days of nothing but four blue walls? Seth is going insane. He's the kind of person who is restless and jumpy and who needs constant amusement. He needs to be able to grab his skateboard and go outside in the sunshine, not endure long hours of torture with nothing to look at but his ceiling.

Being in bed this much is killing him, and it's killing the mood of his bedroom.

"Hey," Ryan says, coming in still dressed in his Crab Shack t-shirt.

"Hey yourself."

Seth is bitter - very bitter. He knows that Ryan only finished his shift ten minutes ago which means he must have rode extra fast on his bike home and came straight up to his room without stopping off at the pool house first, but still Seth can't bring himself to be civil. Ryan has been _outside._ Bastard.

"You have a good day?" Ryan asks, munching on some chips. The packet is dangling from his hand but he's moving around the foot of the bed so Seth can't move to grab them off him.

"Oh yes, fantastic. I developed a theory of relativity this morning and spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool with some hotties and a crate of beer. Yourself?"

Ryan looks slightly hurt at the bitter and sarcastic tone, but sits down on the bed beside Seth anyway. He offers out his bag of chips.

"My day was okay."

"I can't reach them," Seth says impatiently after trying to move his arm without creating a twinge in his back. He sighs angrily and looks away in his best attempt at being haughty.

Eventually Ryan feeds him, and Seth tries not to think about how much he enjoys it because seriously, an erection is the last thing he needs when he can't move his arms to do anything about it.

"Summer stopped by for dinner and asked after you."

"Did you tell her I was in great amounts of undue pain?"

"I said you were being a bad patient."

"A bad patient? I'm not being a - Ow!"

Seth decides twisting around whilst lying down maybe isn't the best thing for lower spinal nerve sprain.

Ryan calmly pulls the bed covers back up to Seth's shoulders where Seth dislodged them in his fit of verbal self defense.

"She says she'll be around some time next week to see you."

"Oh great, bring them all in, bring in Julie Cooper and the rest of mom's Newpsies, they can all have a look at the freak-show."

Seth's sulking pout really is far too cute for Ryan to resist so he allows himself a smile and leans over to kiss Seth's forehead gently.

"What was that for?" Seth asks, voice laced with three day old frustration.

Ryan doesn't answer, just laughs a little bit before getting up.

"I'm going to get changed. I'll be back soon."

"No, Ryan, no! No! don't go! You can't leave me like - "

But Ryan drowns out Seth's pleas by flicking on the radio as he goes towards the door. He allows himself a little devilish grin as he hears Britney Spears blare through the speakers and Seth groan as he realizes he has no way of turning her off.

~~~~

It is only when Ryan gets the weekend off and they spend a full 48 hours solid in each other's company that Seth realizes how much he and Ryan get on. 

He doesn't just mean 'get on' in the sense of sexual compatibility (although they do get on well in that way - very well) or in the sense of liking the same things, but 'get on' in the way his parents do. They do that thing of going from sitting together in comfortable silence to discussing the in-depth workings of their psychological mind (well, Seth does, Ryan usually just listens when it gets too minty, and Seth accepts that because, well, you know, one of them has to be the tough Chino guy, right?) 

In those two days Seth learns more about Ryan than he probably ever has done in nearly two years of living with him. He learns that Ryan only ever sings along to the important lyrics of songs, he only ever makes that effort to harmonize his voice with that of the singer's when he really means the words. Seth knows this because after he gets Ryan to put on his best mix CD, Ryan picks out lyrics from Seth's favorite songs and sings them quietly, like when Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs comes on, Ryan only sings along to, _They don't love you like I love you_ and when Passenger Seat plays blissfully haunting in the background Ryan sings, _When you need directions then I'll be your guide,_ whilst stroking Seth's hair absent-mindedly. Seth isn't sure if this is Ryan being sappy and saying all the things he wants to say through the medium of brilliant song writing or if Ryan just has a really bad, selective memory for song lyrics. He ponders this while they lie there in the quiet of his room, the sky going dark outside, slowly changing colour through the square of his window, but he thinks he gets his answer when ten minutes, after the CD has finished and the player has shut itself off, Ryan sings, _If you weren't real, I would make you up._

~~~~

All the usual methods of amusement have been ruled out, Jenga, Playstation (because Seth can't sit up long enough to look at the screen) and even watching DVDs, because the DVD player in his room chooses that week to whirr loudly and short circuit at the plug socket. Eventually Ryan makes up a game, which Seth pretends to find stupid, but really marvels at the ingenuity.

"If I had $50, I'd...buy the new Lord Of The Rings Playstation game for you."

"If I had $50 I'd get myself a good orthopedic surgeon."

Ryan glances sideways at Seth, a slight smile on his face, then goes back to looking at the ceiling.

"If I had $60 I'd...dry clean the rug in my bedroom."

Seth frowns.

"Why?"

"Because there’s a nasty stain on it from the night of your birthday."

"Oh yeah," Seth says, with a satisfied smile, and guesses that Ryan is smiling too.

"If I had $60 I'd...bribe the Chemistry professor to give me an A on this month's SATs."

"If I had $70 I'd pay for sailing lessons to impress you."

Seth laughs.

"If I had $70 I'd pay for a hooker."

Ryan looks over at Seth and raises his eyebrows. Seth tries not to giggle.

"You want a hooker?"

"I haven't had sex in nearly two weeks. I'm 18 years old. Of course I want a hooker."

Now it's Ryan's turn to laugh.

"I could just see you with a hooker..."

"What?" Seth says, sounding offended. "What's funny about me with a hooker?"

"You'd run screaming."

Seth is torn between being pissed off at Ryan for getting it so right and being happy because Ryan is rubbing his thumb over the back of Seth's hand and sending shivers over his body.

"I would not run screaming," Seth answers defiantly.

"Dominant women scare you."

"They do not!"

"Okay. What about Summer?"

"Dude, she has rage blackouts. Crossing Summer is like crossing an angry grizzly bear."

"I'll tell her you said that."

"And you can clean up my wounds when she attacks me."

There is silence whilst Seth plays the hand squeezing game with Ryan and he cottons on to squeeze back.

"So what would you pay this hooker to do?" Ryan asks after a while. Seth had forgotten all about his hooker.

"You want me to talk dirty to you when I can't even move?" Seth is incredulous, "Is that like some new branch of Chinese Water Torture?"

Ryan is smiling as he turns to face Seth and leans up on his elbow.

"Well I'm hardly going to leave you here all sexually frustrated, am I?"

"Ryan, my parents are downstairs and I can barely move my arms. How are we going to-"

Then Ryan is kissing him, and Seth wishes with all his heart it didn't hurt too much for him to slide his fingers into Ryan's hair.

Ryan's kisses always suit the mood, Seth finds. He thinks Ryan must be some kind of sexual genius for that. Right now his kiss is gentle, with a slight hint of wanting more. 

It's agony when he pulls away.

"Don't stop. Please?"

"But you said, Sandy and Kirsten are downstairs and - "

"We don't have to do anything. Just - just kiss me."

Seth doesn't know how to say, 'I've missed you kissing me,' without it sounding incredibly minty.

He doesn't need to though, because Ryan does kiss him again and their prolonged period of absence helps to give Seth a funny tingling sensation in his stomach that he used to get back when kissing Ryan was still something he wasn't really supposed to do. 

More than ever he just wishes he could shift around in bed without his lower back muscles feeling like they're on fire because right now he wants Ryan on top of him, and he knows it would just feel utterly stupid to ask for that sort of thing.

"Love you," Seth whispers, in between kisses.

"Me too," Ryan whispers back as his hands run underneath the covers and up over Seth's stomach. The heat caused by the contact spreads to every nerve ending Seth has.

Ryan plants chaste little kisses on his cheek and his jaw before pulling away a little and smiling at Seth. "When your back is better, I promise..."

"I know. You'd better make it up to me. It is all your fault, after all."

Ryan doesn't say anything, just smiles like he's humoring Seth and kisses him once more, then lays back down again. 

Seth always marvels at how gentle Ryan can be, because surely no one has ever been gentle with him? Surely down in Chino it's all one night stands and hard, fast sex? surely no one gives cuddles and tiny kisses to make things better?

Seth thinks about that as they lie there in what is now late evening darkness. Soon it will be time to sleep again and he'll lie there listening to Ryan breathing quietly beside him (because now that he's unable to move or do anything, his parents decide it's okay for Ryan to share his bed). Being in bed all day is strangely in-conducive to sleep so Seth can add insomnia to his list of 'Shitty things that have happened to me this month.'

"Ryan?"

"Hmmm?"

Seth knows Ryan is falling asleep already, and he gets to feeling desperate because he's going to be left on his own again with no one to talk to except the voice in his head.

"Tomorrow can we do something fun?"

"Like what, Seth?" 

"Something. Anything."

"Yeah," Ryan answers, but it's mumbled because now he's turned on his side and drawn his knees up close to his chest, getting ready for sleep.

Seth wonders what everyone will do in the morning when they wake up and find he's lost his mind. He thinks his mom will be awfully upset.

"Seth?"

"Hmm?" 

"I'll strip for you tomorrow."

"What?" Seth's voice is eager and he even manages to turn his head quickly towards Ryan without it catching his shoulders and affecting his spine.

"I'll strip for you." Ryan has his eyes closed and he's sounding groggy, but Seth knows somehow this isn't just a sleepy promise.

"Really? a full strip-tease?"

"Yes," Ryan says, and lightly lays his arm across Seth's chest in a protective gesture. "Now try to get a bit of sleep."

Finally, Seth thinks he will.


End file.
